risc book club

At RISC book club we read and discuss one classic or groundbreaking 'world' novel each month - come and join us!

The book club began in September 2006 and has had a fantastic group of people supporting it ever since. It is linked to the World Shop Bookshop, which stocks all of the titles that the bookclub chooses to read, and offers the public and bookclub members a discount for whichever title the bookclub has voted for that month.

The bookclub meets once a month to discuss new and classic international fiction. We aim to support the work of authors from the Majority World, that is, Africa, Asia, South and Central America and the Caribbean, by reading their novels and poetry. Some of these authors do not get major press recognition and struggle to find a market for their work, so there are often titles that the Bookshop stocks and the bookclub reads that might seem obscure. We all think this is a great way to support these authors. Sometimes titles by these inspiring authors do get recognised in the mainstream bookshops, which is also fantastic, and so there is always a mix of books.

Over the last few years, we have read books from an amazing range of countries and authors, for example, Sri Lanka, Egypt, Angola, Palestine, Malaysia, Nigeria, India, China, Chile, Pakistan, Zimbabwe, Afghanistan, Sudan, Jamaica, Iran, UK, Libya, Mexico, and many many others.

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No Time Like the Present by Nadine Gordimer

Maps for Lost Lovers by Nadeem Aslam

Balzac and the little Chinese Seamstress by Sijie Dai

Vauxhall by Gabriel Gbadamosi

How to Fight Islamist Terror from the Missionary Position (A novel) by Tabish Khair

May 2014

The Lowland by Jhumpa Lahiri

April 2014

Looking for Transwonderland by Noo Saro-Wiwa

July 2013

Cutting For Stone by Abraham Verghese

June 2013

Pao by Kerry Young

2013

Go Dies by the Nile by Nawal El Saadawi

2013

The Long Song by Andrea Levy

2013

The Wandering Falcon by Jamil Ahmad

2013

The Last Brother by Nathacha Appanah

2013

The Sly Company of People Who Care by Rahul Bhattacharya

2013

A Girl Mande of Dust by Nathalie Abi-Ezzi

2013

A Man of the People by Chinua Achebe

2013

An Elegy for Easterly by Petina Gappah

2013

Tales of Freedom by Ben Okri

2013

The Thing Around Your Neck by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

"I really liked this book. I don't normally read short stories, but each story seemed like another little piece of her personality, or her story, told in such a beautiful way. She is an expert story teller, and even though you don't necessarily identify personally with every tale, there's something to grips you, or lingers with you, or moves you in every single story. I am looking forward to what this author produces next..."

Bookclub member May 2010

Lajja by Taslima Nasrin

"This tale of Hindu oppression in post-independence Bangladesh is urgent, political, message-based fiction. As a piece of fiction it compares very badly to other novels with analogous social content like Half of a Yellow Sun (Biafra), Mornings in Jenin (Palestine) or Shalimar the Clown (Kashmir) which manage to illuminate issues and have literary quality. However to be fair these books were all written from the diaspora with the safety of distance and the perspective of time and to finish Lajja I had to set aside its crudity as a novel and read it as a different kind of work.

Lajja deals with the journey of Suranjan from a fierce commitment to remaining in Bangladesh as a minority in spite of rising turmoil, to his hopelessness and flight to India. Initially eschewing identity labels, Suranjan is gradually forced into an externally-imposed Hindu identity despite his atheism.

Competing layers of identity are wrestled with in the young state: cultural or linguistic communities; perceived ethnicity; religion; state. Of these, Nasreen privileges ethnicity, claiming Bengali-ness perceived as ‘race’ as the best basis for the state. What she does not make explicit is why choosing any one of these layers as the basis for harmony or belonging is any less spurious than all of the others. Where in Nigeria the evils of communalism would refer to race, and in Pakistan religion would be seen as a unifying force in a multi-nation, multilingual state, Nasreen derides religious identity without interrogating whether race is any more moral.

She also ignores the role of class in the conflict almost entirely, mentioning briefly at the very end that Hindus have owned the majority of the agricultural land despite most farmers being Muslim. The potentially exploitative role of a land-owning class is treated as irrelevant in the tensions. As a character Suranjan also leaves an impression of a spoilt bourgeois who is mostly mourning his loss of affluence and the country mansion.

While I found this crude, shrill, partisan and containing no intelligent defence for race-based nationalism, it held my interest and gave a glimpse of the tone of inter-community relations in Bangladesh."

Bookclub member April 2010

She's Gone by Kwame Dawes

"I'm sorry but I really didn't enjoy this book. I had to force myself to finish it, and most of it just made me cross! I found most of the characters incredibly stereotypical, and the plot was dull and lifeless. A really superficial, irritating read!"

Bookclub member November 2009

Iran Awakening by Shirin Ebadi

"This is a fascinating read, I've never learnt so much about a place from a book as I did from this. The history lesson is cleverly disguised in what can only be described as one of the most amazing women in the world's story. Ebadi, winner of the nobel peace prize, has fought against the kind of adversity that most of us can never really imagine, and seems to be winning, bit by bit. A genuinely interesting, powerful and empowering read. I would recommend this to anyone, and suggest to everyone that we find out about other countries, through the eyes of their people."

Bookclub Member Feb 2009

The Immigrant by Manju Kapur

"Sheltered, obedient dentist Ananda migrates from small town India to Canada after the sudden death of his parents. Living initially with his uncle while he requalifies, Ananda is unwillingly coaxed into a frugal and timid independence. Despite the will to integrate he fails to take risks, find a girlfriend or confront an unexplored sexual dysfunction, eventually opting for the safer alternative of a transnational arranged marriage.Nina is 30, works as a lecturer in Delhi, supports her mother and is best friends with a free-thinking 40-something divorcee. Despite her independence, the weight of expectation to marry and have children before it is too late eats away at her until she succumbs gratefully to marriage and a new life with Ananda.What might end the tale is merely the start of this detailed and often painful dissection of an ill-fated marriage between people who have sought a spouse to compensate for other shortcomings. A compelling read, not without sympathy or hope."

Bookclub Member, Nov 2008

The Translator by Leila Aboulela

"I enjoyed the vivid simplicity of the writing and found the two protagonists and their love across religious lines beautifully drawn, but part of what appears through this clarity of writing is the author's failure to ascribe humanity or depth to those outside her own camp. Her exile in Scotland is peopled with shadowy half-figures with whom we are offered no connection and in whom she takes little interest. I suppose I would recommend it as an exercise in understanding a world view you may not agree with and liking the person while not liking their views."